Transfer of hot bodies from furnaces



April 21; 1954 H. c. FERGusoN 3,129,829

TRANSFER OF HOT BODIES FROM FURNACES Filed April 25, 1961 llllll HusH C.FERGUSON YLA Q- 27kt;

ATTORNEY United States Patent Office TRANSFER OF HOT BODES FROM FURNACESHugh Crawford Ferguson, Glasgow, Scotland, assignor to Davy and UnitedEngineering Company Limited, Sheffieid, England Filed Apr. 25, 1961,Ser. No. 105,354 Claims priority, application Great Britain Apr. 29,196i) 2 Claims. (Cl. 214-18) This invention relates to a method andapparatus for transferring hot bodies from a furnace to a receivingsurface.

According to one aspect of the invention a method of transferring a hotbody from a furnace to a receiving surface comprises ejecting the bodyfrom the furnace into the space between two vertically spaced opposedsupportsurfaces of a transfer member so as to rest upon one of saidsupport surfaces, pivoting said transfer member so as to invert saidbody and cause it to rest upon the other of said support surfaces, andfurther moving said transfer member to bring the inverted body intoengagement with said receiving surface.

According to another aspect of the invention a transfer device fortransferring a hot body from a furnace to a receiving surface comprisesan open-ended member having two spaced apart opposed support surfacesand mounted for pivotal movement about a pivotal axis spaced from theopen end thereof through a vertical plane extending between the furnaceand the receiving surface so as to be movable from a first position inwhich the open end of said member is aligned with an exit from thefurnace to receive a hot body ejected from said furnace, to a secondposition in which a hot body received in said member engages with saidreceiving surface.

The various features and advantages of the invention will be apparentfrom the following description of an exemplary embodiment thereof takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a diagrammatic representation of a transfer device embodyingthe invention disposed between a re-heating furnace and a roller table,and

FIGURE 2 shows a wrapper for a hot body to a larger scale.

in the embodiment shown the transfer device is employed to transferstainless steel slabs 1 supported by wrappers 2 from a re-heatingfurnace 3 to the receiving surface 4 of a roller table 5 the drivemechanism of which is indicated schematically at 5a. It is to beunderstood that the furnace 3 may be of any conventional construction asalso may be the roller table 5, neither of these items forming part ofthe invention, and as a consequence detailed description of these itemsis omitted for simplicity of description.

The table 5 serves to convey the reheated slabs ejected from the furnaceto a processing station (not shown) which may for example be a rollingmill. It will be noted that the slabs 1 rest upon wrappers 2 in thefurnace 3 and if they were to be ejected simply by pushing them down askid on to the surface 4 of table 5 they would arrive on such surfacestill resting upon the wrappers 2 and would thus have to be removed fromthese wrappers and placed on the table surface before they were conveyedinto the rolling mill. This additional manipulation step is avoided bymeans of the method and device of the invention in that the relativepositions of the slabs and wrappers are reversed during transfer fromthe furnace to the table by inverting each slab and its wrapper so thatwhen each slab reaches the surface 4 it rests directly upon such surfaceand its wrapper 2 is uppermost and can readily be removed withoutfurther manipulation of the slab.

This inverting and transfer step is effected by the trans- 3,129,829Patented Apr. 21, 1964 fer member 6 of bifurcated form pivotally mountedby means of a shaft 7 for movement through the vertical plane indicatedby a broken vertical line passing through the axis of shaft 7 from theposition shown in full lines to the position shown in broken lines.

In the position shown the open end of member 6 is aligned with the exitof the furnace 3 so that upon ejection of a slab and Wrapper I, 2 fromthe furnace it slides down a short skid Ill into the space between thebifurcations 9 and 12 of member 6 to rest upon the support surface 8 ofbifurcation 9' as shown. To assist in this the surface 8 is arranged toform a continuation of the upper surface of skid it} in this position ofmember 6. During this movement the feet 13 of the wrapper 2 lie onopposite sides of the skid ill and then on opposite sides of thebifurcation d thus acting as guides for the slab-wrap per combination inits movement into the member 6;

By means of a reversible drive mechanism of conventional designindicated schematically by the rectangle 14 and which by virtue of itswell known nature requires no detailed description, the shaft 7 is nowrotated and thus the member 6 with the slab 1 and wrapper 2 resting onits surface 8 is pivoted about the axis of shaft 7. In passing throughthe vertical plane the slab and wrapper are inverted and the slab 1caused to rest upon the support surface ll of bifurcation 12 with thewrapper 2 resting on the slab 1. This pivotal movement is continueduntil the member 6 occupies the broken line position 6' shown in whichthe support surface 1?. lies below the level of the surface 4 and theslab 2 rests upon surface 4 and is conveyed away from member 6 by theconveying movement of the roller table 5.

As will be observed, the feet 13 of the wrapper 2 are engaged by thebifurcation 9, and the wrapper is held by the bifurcation 9 while theslab is conveyed away by the roller table 5. When the slab is clear ofthe member 6 the wrapper can be withdrawn from member 6 by any suitablemeans or the member 6 can be further rotated in the direction of thearrow until the open mouth between bifurcations 9 and 12 is pointingdownwardly and the wrapper 2 slides out of member 6 under gravity.

Alternatively, the spacing between bifurcations 6, 9 may be arranged sothat, when the slab and wrapper 2 are laid on the roller table 5, theupper edges of the feet 13 lie below, and are free of, the bifurcation9. In this case, the wrapper 2 is conveyed away from the transfer member6 with the slab 1 and, when clear of the member 6, may be readilyremoved from the slab by engagement of the feet 13 with any suitableremoval device.

The proportioning and disposition of the items 5, 6

. and 3 is arranged to be such that in the full-line position shown inFIGURE 1 the open end of member 6 adjoins the skid W as shown and in thebroken line position of member 6 one end of the slab 1 is depositedsubstantially on the center of the roller table 5 while the bifurcation12 of member 6 passes behind the table 5 to a position below the levelof surface 4-.

The wrapper shown in FIGURE 2 comprises an openended tray of a suitablematerial to withstand the heat of the furnace having secured to itsunderface two parallel angle members constituting the feet 13.

In accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes, I haveexplained the principle and operation of my invention and haveillustrated and described what I consider to represent the bestembodiment thereof. However, I desire to have it understood that withinthe scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically illustrated and described.

I claim:

1. In combination with a slab-heating oven having an exit opening; aplurality of open-topped slab-receiving Wrappers; a downwardly-inclinedskid located at said exit opening over which said wrappers with theirslabs slide, an open-ended member having two spaced apart opposedsupport surfaces for receiving between said surfaces a wrapper and slab,said wrappers including legs that engage with :said member and serve toposition the slab when received 'by said member, means for pivotallymounting said member about a horizontal pivot axis spaced from the openend of said member, and a roller table extending parallel to said pivotaxis spaced from and at an elevation diiferent from the elevation ofsaid oven, said member being spaced between said oven and said rollertable and movable about said axis between a first position in which saidopposed surfaces are inclined to the horizontal and one of said supportsurfaces is aligned with the extremity of said skid and a second 4position in which said opposed surfaces are substantially horizontal andthe other of said support surfaces is adjacent said roller table.

2. In combination with a slab-heating oven according to claim 1, whereinsaid legs of said wrappers are constructed to hold the Wrappers againstmovement on the movement of said slab away from said member whensupported by said roller table.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,061,358 Hunter et al Nov. 17, 1936 2,365,007 Rideout et al Dec. 12,1944 2,715,973 Winfrce et al Aug. 23, 1955 2,761,507 Clarke et al Sept.4, 1956 2,935,216 Patt May 3, 1960

1. IN COMBINATION WITH A SLAB-HEATING OVEN HAVING AN EXIT OPENING; ADOWNWARDLY-INCLINED SKID LOCATED AT SAID EXIT WRAPPERS; ADOWNWARDLY-INCLINED SKID LOCATED AT SAID EXIT OPENING OVER WHICH SAIDWRAPPERS WITH THEIR SLABS SLIDE, AN OPEN-ENDED MEMBER HAVING TWO SPACEDAPART OPPOSED SUPPORT SURFACES FOR RECEIVING BETWEEN SAID SURFACES AWRAPPER AND SLAB, SAID WRAPPERS INCLUDING LEGS THAT ENGAGE WITH SAIDMEMBER AND SERVE TO POSITION THE SLAB WHEN RECEIVED BY SAID MEMBER,MEANS FOR PIVOTALLY MOUNTING SAID MEMBER ABOUT A HORIZONTAL PIVOT AXISSPACED FROM THE OPEN END OF SAID MEMBER, AND A ROLLER TABLE EXTENDINGPARALLEL TO SAID PIVOT AXIS SPACED FROM AND AT AN ELEVATION DIFFERENTFROM THE ELEVATION OF SAID OVEN, SAID MEMBER BEING SPACED BETWEEN SAIDOVEN AND SAID ROLLER TABLE AND MOVABLE ABOUT SAID AXIS BETWEEN A FIRSTPOSITION IN WHICH SAID OPPOSED SURFACES ARE INCLINED TO THE HORIZONTALAND ONE OF SAID SUPPORT SURFACES IS ALIGNED WITH THE EXTREMITY OF SAIDSKID AND A SECOND POSITION IN WHICH SAID OPPOSED SURFACES ARESUBSTANTIALLY HORIZONTAL AND THE OTHER OF SAID SUPPORT SURFACES ISADJACENT SAID ROLLER TABLE.